ThreeA’s New Batman Protects the Gotham of the Steel Age

Finally, ThreeA's Steel Age Batman has made an appearance. Teased ahead of San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year on Instagram, and then at the show itself with a massive banner (which you might have missed given its auspicious hanging spot), ThreeA's finally unveiled the first official images of its unique take on the Dark Knight. If you want to get technical, Steel Age Batman was actually teased all the way back at SDCC 2014, but that was just a concept image and announcement of the deal between ThreeA and DC Comics. It's taken more than a year for the Bat to actually surface.

Designed by Ashley Wood, Steel Age Batman looks like Bruce Wayne designed a series of Batbots instead of suiting up himself and set them to guard his beloved Gotham. It's hard to tell from the teaser imagery ThreeA just released, but Batman appears to be another mixed media figure with some light-up features. The silhouette is still immediately recognizable even with the metal interpretation Wood's given his take. That said, there doesn't appear to be a batsymbol on his chest, but when the rest of the figure is so familiar, does he really need it?

While the current crop of images delivered to tease the Steel Age's arrival might not give the best indication of what to expect from this figure, Ashley Wood's Instagram offers a much clearer look at what to expect. Since July, he's dropped select shots of the figure in progress on his photostream, and the images show a very promising figure indeed. The construction of the shoulders and cowl appears to be where most of the Steel Age trappings will be found. The design falls in line with ThreeA's previous personalized takes on superheroes like Doctor Doom and Iron Man, and the metal working looks particularly sharp on Batman's back.

The head will have some light-up features, and the body appears to fall into a more traditional clothed style. The tailoring does look good so far, and the massive belt brings even more style to Wood's take on the DC icon. The promo image hinted that the batsymbol would be part of the ensemble, and I'm curious to see if that's still part of the plan or if it's been abandoned completely. That might be part of the reason so many of the images completely obscure that part of Batman's body. Perhaps ThreeA is just trying to find the right way to bring that aspect to life.

The inclusion of a Lex Luthor quote on the promo images is curious, but hints at the minimal backstory ThreeA created for the Steel Age. In this world, the villains have won, and the robotic versions of legendary heroes like Batman are put into service to combat the forces of evil. Typically ThreeA's superhero figures are merely just offered as collectibles, but if there's a chance we could get some short Ashley Wood stories about this world in print, that would certainly be a cool bonus.

There's no word on when or where the Steel Age Batman will be available as of yet, but we'll certainly be keeping an eye out for him and any other DC heroes Ashley Wood wants to reinterpret as figures.